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Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Man lodges police complaint over lost wallet and the real culprit turns out to be dog
BEIJING: A man lost his wallet and he subsequently lodged a complaint over alleged theft, but little did he know that the real culprit would be someone beyond his imagination.
A man who had complained about losing his wallet was shocked to find out the culprit behind the theft was a dog. According to a Daily Mail report, the man in Anqing city, China, reported to the police that his wallet was missing after he went out to play a card game with his friends. He stated that along with his bank cards and ID, around 2,000 yuan (21 thousand Indian rupees) were also in the wallet.

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1037044480682151937

However, everyone seemed to be shocked when the identity of the thief was revealed: a small black dog. In the surveillance footage, the local police saw the dog picking up the wallet, which was lying on the floor, and walking away holding it in its mouth.
The video shows the man playing a game of cards with his three friends at a grocery store when his wallet falls on the ground from his back pocket. A moment later, two dogs walk past the men and one of them picks up the wallet and sneaked away with it. Fortunately, the police tracked the dog and were able to retrieve the stolen wallet.
Picked : https://arynews.tv/en/man-wallet-real-culprit-turns-out-og/

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Hackers can alter WhatsApp chats:

Should UAE users be alarmed?
Dubai: WhatsApp users have been warned against a newly discovered flaw in the messaging service that can allow fraudsters to intercept and manipulate chats.
The Facebook-owned app, which currently has more than 1.5 billion users and is widely popular in UAE, has already been the target of a number of fraud attempts, from free airline tickets to retail vouchers.
Just last week, major hypermarket retailer LuLu warned users of a voucher scam being circulated through WhatsApp and tricking people into sharing their private details, including bank account and credit card information.
But new research has found that fraudsters can’t just forward, share or spread fake news, they can now intercept and alter messages for malicious purposes.
According to cybersecurity company Check Point that tested the vulnerability of WhatsApp algorithms, it may be possible for hackers to infiltrate private and group conversations and do any of the following that can fuel more scams, fake news and even turn friends against each other:
1. Change a reply from someone to put words into their mouth that they did not say. For example, the message with the content “Great” sent by a member of a group could be changed to something else like: “I’m going to die in a hospital right now.”

2. Quote a message in a reply to a group conversation to make it appear as if it came from a person who is not even part of the group.
3. Send a message to a member of a group that pretends to be a group message but is in fact only sent to this member. However, the member’s response will be sent to the entire group.
The newly discovered “vulnerabilities,” can put con artists “in a position of immense power” to not only crack into people’s messages, but also spread misinformation or fake news, according to Check Point.
Other IT security experts, however, clarified that Check Point’s findings were mainly based on the cybersecurity company’s study and that no actual hacking cases have been reported so far.
Also, not every single WhatsApp user may be prone to attacks, as the mentioned flaw seems to be focused around group chats and users of WhatsApp web.
“It is not the end-to-end encryption that is broken, but a specific flaw around how group chats are used, which combined with social engineering, the art of tricking a user to do something unintentional, can be damaging,” Nicolai Solling, chief technology officer at Help AG, told Gulf News.
“The research itself relies on certain attack methods to obtain the keys, specifically around the use of WhatsApp web. In general WhatsApp web is meant as an extension to your WhatsApp mobile app, and WhatsApp web should only be used on devices you trust,” he added.
How to keep chats protected
To protect themselves against hacking attempts, users should try to limit the use of WhatsApp web. “Only access this from a computer you trust,” said Solling.
“All communication can never be completely be trusted. History has told us that all encryption can be broken or at least bypassed. Therefore, always stay sceptical and alert.”
Here are more examples of what hackers can do:

Friday, July 13, 2018

As Trump says Putin ‘not my enemy’, skeptics in US see danger
WASHINGTON: In preparing for his first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump has provoked a rare agreement among Democrats and Republicans alarmed by the possibility of a cozy meeting.
While Republican Trump has gone softer on Putin, calling him a “competitor” and “not my enemy” on Thursday, lawmakers from both parties hardened their warnings to Trump before he sits down with the Russian leader in Helsinki on Monday.
“Putin is not America’s friend, nor merely a competitor. Putin is America’s enemy — not because we wish it so, but because he has chosen to be,” Republican Senator John McCain said.
“It is up to President Trump to hold Putin accountable for his actions during the meeting in Helsinki,” McCain said in a statement. “Failure to do so would be a serious indictment of his stewardship of American leadership in the world.”
Trump has touted the summit as an opportunity to reduce tensions, inflamed by Russia’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, its military backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which turned the tide of the Syrian civil war in 2015, and accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.
US lawmakers want Trump, both privately with Putin and publicly, to condemn Russia’s actions.
Congress has taken a hard anti-Russia stance, nearly unanimously approving last year a tough sanctions law targeting Moscow. But lawmakers worry Trump will fail to take Putin to task, particularly over the election meddling, which the Russian leader has denied.
US intelligence agencies concluded that Moscow interfered and Trump has said he would discuss it, although he has stated both a willingness to believe Putin’s denials and US agencies. Trump has described a special counsel investigation into possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and Russia as a political witch hunt.
“Our goal must be to demonstrate to the world that the community of democratic nations does not intend to accede to Putin’s or any other authoritarian’s view of the world. We will resist Russia’s aggression,” Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Senator Marco Rubio said in an op-ed in USA Today on Thursday.
Senior Trump administration officials also have voiced fears about what he might give Putin to the detriment of allies in Europe, especially after seeing how Trump appeared to get only vague commitments from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their June 12 summit in Singapore to discuss denuclearization.
Trump declared that he had ended the nuclear threat from North Korea, but one senior US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “Who’s to say he won’t come out of Helsinki saying he and Putin agreed that Russia no longer poses a threat to the rest of Europe?”
‘Easiest’ part of Trump trip
Worries over Trump’s commitment to European allies and his deference to Russia loomed large at the NATO summit that wrapped up on Thursday. Trump claimed a personal victory after telling European allies to increase their defense spending or lose Washington’s support. He particularly railed against Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Trump took another swipe at US allies when he told reporters in Brussels that he thought his meeting with Putin would be “the easiest” part of his week-long European trip.
US Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican, criticized Trump for saying that.
“The Russian president is a man schooled in treachery and espionage. He jails and murders his opponents, presides over a mafia state and he is an enemy of democracy. Why would a meeting with Putin be easier than a meeting with the allies that we rely on most to be a bulwark against him?” Flake asked in a Senate speech.
Putin won re-election for six more years in March with opposition leader Alexei Navalny barred from running on what he says was a false pretext.
Europeans and some US officials are particularly concerned about whether Putin will ask Trump to suspend NATO military drills in the Baltic states on Russia’s doorstep.
Another senior US official said that if Putin came away from the meeting with Trump thinking he had permission to act in the Baltics, Estonia might become the epicenter of what NATO has helped to prevent.
Trump’s assertion that Russia is a competitor and not an adversary is contrary to the judgments of US intelligence agencies and his chief diplomat, Mike Pompeo, who at his April confirmation hearing to be Secretary of State, said the United States needs “to push back in each place we confront them,” referring to the Russians.
While Trump said on Thursday that he expects the Helsinki summit to be “just a loose meeting,” some at home are hoping it will be a “non-event” with nothing groundbreaking.
“Based on just the way things are shaping up, I think a non-eventful Helsinki meeting might be best for our country,” Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations committee,
Picked : https://arynews.tv/en/as-trump-says-putin-not-my-enemy-skeptics-in-us-see-danger/

Monday, July 2, 2018

SAMARA: Brazil’s Neymar (L) taps in to score against Mexico during the round-of-16 match at the Samara Arena on Monday.—AFP
MEXICO had hope, some genuine hope, more than just cautious optimism that they could get a long-awaited first victory over Brazil at a World Cup, that they could for the first time since 1986 they would advance to the ‘quinto partido’ or the fifth match at world football’s showpiece tournament. In four matches before this, they had never beaten Brazil; in the last six World Cups, this last-16 stage had proven to be their undoing.
In their last World Cup match against the five-time world champions, four years ago in Brazil, Mexico had held the hosts to a goalless draw. Riding on their 1-0 upset of Germany in their opening match at this World Cup, the Mexicans were confident that they could shock another of the favourites and go one better than last time when a superb Guillermo Ochoa had frustrated Neymar and company. In a breathless opening here at the Samara Arena on Monday, they had looked quite capable of doing that but then Neymar turned on the style and Brazil coasted past them 2-0, leaving the Mexicans to contemplate a familiar failure.
Brazil seemed rattled by Mexico’s pace early on but they settled down and picked the Mexicans apart in the second-half with Neymar scoring in the 51st minute, putting the finishing touches to a move started by him, before he set up substitute Roberto Firmino late on to put Mexico out of their misery. It was a performance that illustrated coach Tite’s influence on this Brazil team. Defensive solidity is paramount; Brazil know they have the players who can score aplenty at the other end.
Just like they did with their superbly-worked opening goal. Neymar picked up the ball wide and then ran straight almost parallel to the goal, drawing away Mexico’s defenders with him. And then, in an instant, he opened up a Mexico defence that had been so excellent to that point with a clever backheel to Willian. Having drawn the defenders away, his movement opened up space for Willian who drove into the box and sent in a low cross that a sliding Neymar tucked away.
Mexico never really recovered from that. They can play some spectacular football at times but their lack of ‘Plan B’ has seen them be at the end of some heavy defeats in the past. This could’ve been another of them if it hadn’t been for Ochoa who, just like four years ago, kept denying almost every Brazilian on the pitch. He saved from Phillippe Coutinho, from Paulinho, from Willian. With his saves, he would’ve hoped to inspire his team-mates on the other end of the pitch.
Instead, it was Brazil who kept coming back and he helplessly looked on as Brazil wrapped it up a minute from time through Firmino. Neymar got behind the Mexican defence and tried to find the far corner, only for Ochoa’s fingertips to put the ball into the path of an onrushing Firmino to tap it in.
OUTRAGEOUS REACTION
While it should’ve been Neymar’s goal and assist that should’ve been the talking point after the match, it was instead his antics that came into sharp focus: his outrageous reaction during the second half as Mexican Miguel Layun picked the ball from between his legs as he lay on the pitch. Television pictures showed a slight brush on his ankle but his reaction seemed like he’d been run over by a car.
Moments later, with the referee finding no fault by Layun in the incident, Neymar was back on his feet and running perfectly.
“Unfortunately we wasted a lot of time because of one of the players,” Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio said at the post-match press conference. “I think it’s a shame for football. It’s a men’s sport and there shouldn’t be so much acting.”
The rest of the press conference followed that theme. Asked by a reporter that the replay showed a slight touch by Layun, Osorio responded: “I respect your opinion.” Asked further, specifically about Neymar’s play-acting, Osorio said, “I didn’t mention him. It’s your interpretation. I’m entitled to give my opinion. I did not mention him.” Finally, he said: “There were incidents in the match where there was very little contact and every time the referee stopped the game.”
It was those stoppages that Osorio blamed for Mexico losing momentum. “The intensity decreases at some point and the referee has a lot to do with it,” said Osorio. “He allowed too many ‘fake’ faults.”
Neymar was asked about Osorio’s comments but it was the moment Tite took charge. “The hierarchy stands,” Tite said. “The coach talks to the coach, the athlete to the athlete. I will answer that question. I saw what happened. You can analyse the video.”
Neymar, meanwhile, said: “All this talk is an attempt to undermine me than anything else. I don’t care about the criticism because this can influence my attitude. There’s too many people talking anyways. I need to help my team, I have to play I have to play.”
At the end of it all, Tite praised Osorio’s work and for making it an absorbing contest. “It was a great match considering the number of opportunities created,” he noted. “Osorio has done beautiful work and it’s why this was a beautiful match that excited me.”
MESMERISING FOOTBALL
Mexico were mesmerising in the opening 20 minutes, so good that Tite had a concerned look on his face. Brazil aren’t used to facing such opposition, opposition that comes at them so relentlessly as the Mexicans were coming. The game was only two minutes old and Mexicans had already blocked two Brazilian passes in midfield. Paulinho, who makes those surging runs through the centre, was forced to be in line with Casemiro, who sits ahead of the defence.
Down the left, Carlos Vela was terrorising Fagner every time he got the ball. Going past the Brazilian full-back was never a problem for Vela. The only issue was with the final ball. Apart from Neymar’s shot which Guillermo Ochoa palmed away, it was all Mexico. They were creating all sorts of angles, they were making all sorts of runs with the ball and off it, trying to carve open Brazil. On top of that, such
was their pressing that Neymar was forced to drop deep to try to create space for himself.
Osorio had spoken before the match about attacking the Brazilian full-backs and his team was doing exactly that and finding joy. On the other side of the pitch, it was Hirving Lozano who was isolating Filipe Luis and then running past him. There was one moment in which he left Luis for dead but, just like with Vela on the other end, the final ball was missing.
Neymar’s first real chance came halfway through the first half, the gifted striker showing some nifty footwork to go past two defenders before seeing his effort saved by Ochoa. Instead of Neymar, it’s been Coutino who has been Brazil’s leading man at this World Cup but his passes were being cut, his shots at goal being blocked or sailing wide.
As the half wore on, Mexico’s intensity deceased and the game opened up for Brazil. Gabriel Jesus finally got some service and saw two shots blocked. Osorio had vowed on Sunday that Mexico wouldn’t stop attacking Brazil but he was also vary of the goal-scoring threats posed by Brazil. Mexico hadn’t taken the lead by half-time but crucially hadn’t fallen behind either.
The plan was nearing perfect execution. But then Brazil scored just six minutes into the second half and Mexico didn’t have an answer.
Picked : https://www.dawn.com/news/1417628/brazil-leave-mexico-contemplating-familiar-failure

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Illegal immigrant parents not facing US prosecution for now

Trump faced a global outcry this month over migrant children being separated from their parents.
Parents who cross illegally from Mexico to the United States with their children will not face prosecution for the time being because the government is running short of space to house them, officials said on Monday.
President Donald Trump's administration has vowed to prosecute all adults who cross the border illegally but its policy of separating immigrant children from parents met fierce international criticism so it is now trying to keep detained families together while the parents await trial.
That has created logistics problems of how to house those families, and the Customs and Border Protection agency is now not referring new cases for prosecution, CBP officials said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was not dropping its policy of "zero-tolerance" of illegal immigration but it needed a "temporary solution" until it can house migrant families.
"This will only last a short amount of time, because we're going to run out of space, we're going to run out of resources in order to keep people together. And we're asking Congress to provide those resources and do their job," Sanders told reporters.
A source at the CBP said it expects to soon resume the referrals for prosecution and is still sending for prosecution those adults who are caught crossing illegally and do not have children with them.
Trump faced a global outcry this month, including sharp criticism from some inside his Republican Party, over migrant children being separated from their parents.
He formally ended the policy of separating families last Wednesday, but the administration has yet to reunite more than 2,000 children with their parents and it is not clear how it will house thousands of families while parents are prosecuted.
The US military has been asked to prepare to house up to 20,000 unaccompanied child migrants on its bases.
Although Republicans control both chambers in Congress, disagreements between moderates and conservatives in the party over immigration matters have hit prospects for a speedy legislative fix to the border crisis.
Mark Meadows, leader of a conservative faction among Republicans in the House of Representatives, said on Monday he expected that an immigration bill being worked on by Republicans would fail.
A group of Republican and Democratic senators huddled late on Monday to see whether they might be able to come together on legislation establishing a protocol for treating immigrant families as their pleas for asylum or other protections from deportation are considered.
But after the meeting, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said "Nothing's going to happen this week," on legislation in the Senate.
With Congress out of session next week for the July 4 public holiday, that would mean the Senate could not debate a bill until at least the following week.https://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/americas/illegal-immigrant-parents-not-facing-us-prosecution-for-now

Saturday, May 26, 2018

A federal court jury on Thursday ordered Samsung to pay Apple $533 million for copying iPhone design features in a patent case dating back seven years.
Jurors tacked on an additional $5 million in damages for a pair of patented functions. The award appeared to be a bit of a victory for Apple, which had argued in court that design was essential to the iPhone.
The case was keenly watched as a precedent for whether design is so important that it could actually be considered the “article of design” even in a product as complex as a smartphone.
“We don’t think it is supported by the evidence,” Samsung attorney John Quinn told US District Court Judge Lucy Koh after the verdict was read in her courtroom in Silicon Valley.
“We have every concern about the determinations about the article of manufacture.”
Quinn declined an offer by the judge to send jurors back for further deliberation, saying Samsung would pursue post-trial motions to address its concerns about the verdict.
Juror Christine Calderon said the panel agreed that one of the design patents — the grid of colored icons — did represent the whole phone, while the other two at issue in the trial were seen as the display assembly that gave the iPhone its look.
She compared it to the Mona Lisa: “You use the paint, but it is not the article of manufacture.”
“I had to really think about it,” the 26-year-old Calderon, a technical writer, said after Koh dismissed the jury.
“We kind of felt like we ended up at a happy medium.”
Long legal road
The case had been sent back to the district court following a Supreme Court decision to revisit an earlier $400 million damage award.
Apple reasoned in court that design was so integral to the iPhone that it was the “article of manufacture” and worth all the money Samsung made by copying the features.
The lower figure sought by the South Korean consumer electronics titan would have involved treating the design features as components.
The jury had been asked to determine whether design features at issue in the case are worth all profit made from Samsung smartphones that copied them — or whether those features are worth just a fraction because they are components.
Apple argued in court that the iPhone was a “bet-the-company” project at Apple and that design is as much the “article of manufacture” as the device itself.
The three design patents in the case apply to the shape of the iPhone’s black screen with rounded edges and a bezel, and the rows of colorful icons displayed.
Samsung no longer sells the smartphone models at issue in the case.
Two utility patents also involved apply to “bounce-back” and “tap-to-zoom” functions.
An original trial finding that Samsung violated Apple patents preceded a lengthy appellate dueling over whether design features such as rounded edges are worth all the money made from a phone.
Technology vs Style
Samsung challenged the legal precedent that requires the forfeiture of all profits from a product, even if only a single design patent has been infringed.
The US Supreme Court in 2016 overturned the penalty imposed on the South Korean consumer electronics giant.
Justices ruled that Samsung should not be required to forfeit the entire profits from its smartphones for infringement on design components, sending the case back to a lower court.
“Today’s decision flies in the face of a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in favor of Samsung on the scope of design patent damages,” the South Korean company said in response to an AFP inquiry.
“We will consider all options to obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair competition for all companies and consumers.”
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
The key question of the value of design patents rallied Samsung supporters in the tech sector, and Apple backers in the creative and design communities.
Samsung won the backing of major Silicon Valley and other IT sector giants, including Google, Facebook, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, claiming a strict ruling on design infringement could lead to a surge in litigation.
Apple was supported by big names in fashion and manufacturing. Design professionals, researchers and academics, citing precedents like Coca-Cola’s iconic soda bottle.
The case is one element of a $548 million penalty — knocked down from an original $1 billion jury award — Samsung was ordered to pay for copying iPhone patents.
Picked : https://arynews.tv/en/samsung-directed-to-pay-apple-533m-for-copying-iphone-design/